Nerfs to Elise, Jarvan and Taric – Patch 3.04!

Â Check out Riot’s latest batch of balance stew; some champions will not find it delicious.

Champions

Elise

Neurotoxin

Cast range reduced to 625 from 650

Damage reduced to 40/80/120/160/200 from 50/95/140/185/230

Venomous Bite

Damage increased to 60/110/160/210/260 from 50/95/140/185/230

Elise has been rewarded too well for playing safely, so we shifted some of her power to her spider form to increase the reward for taking risks.

Janna

Howling Gale

Fixed a bug where the knockup duration was not increasing based on charge time

Knockup duration when fully charged increased to 1 second from 0.75 seconds

I absolutely love this change to Janna. She deserves to shine among supports, given how satisfying it is to master her. The increased CC of her Q, coupled with her now cheaper ultimate, are sure to bring her back from her state ofÂ forgottenness.

Singed is intended to be incredibly durable and to gradually burn down his opponents in team fights. By making disables more effective against him and reducing his initial burst damage, Singedâ€™s opponents now have more time and ways to deal with him in these situations.

Taric

Shatter

Damage reduced to 50/90/130/170/210 from 60/105/150/190/240

Armor damage ratio reduced to 20% from 30%

Dazzle

Stun duration adjusted to 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5/1.6 seconds from 1.5 at all ranks

Last patch’s changes opened up different playstyles for Taric but did not effectively address his power level. These changes reduce Taric’s lane dominance by lowering his burst damage and forcing him to make more tradeoffs when choosing which spells to level up.

Locket of the Iron Solari is mainly picked up by junglers and supports, roles that most frequently earn less gold than others, for the team-wide active. We’ve reduced both the cost and personal stats on the item to lessen its gold impact while preserving its team utility.

Cooldown Reduction and Cooldown Reduction per Level runes have been increased at all Tiers (varying from 2-35% increase)

Spectator Mode

Fixed a bug that would cause the spectator client to crash when using chat commands (ex: /joke, /taunt)

Restricted Chat Mode

In an effort to encourage active reform and shield players from toxicity, weâ€™ve implemented a new account restriction that limits in-game chat for toxic players.

Certain players (identified by Tribunal and by Player Support) will have a limited number of in-game messages available and limited access to [All] Chat.

Restricted players that successfully complete matchmade games will earn their chat privileges back.

General

Ready checks no longer return players to the PvP.Net landing page

“Random” has been moved to the top of champion select

Chat notifications in the bottom right-hand corner of the client now wait to appear until players have closed the AFK popup dialogue first

Battle Training bots no longer acquire unavailable items

Dragon, Baron, Towers and Inhibitors now show assists

Â Summary:

This patch has mostly been about toning down bruisers, defensive items and tanking in general. Which is a great move by Riot to encourage more risky strategies, one that would ultimately result in more fun scenarios on the Fields of Justice. Elise, Singed and Taric in particular will be taking the heaviest nerfs this patch. Where the flow of the game and mentality of players will take these champions is yet unknown. As for those who love to support, consider including Janna in your roster of picks.

Item-wise, BotRK has received its promised nerfs. Xypherous in particular was very vocal about the toxicity of this item and this patch will definitely bring it down to more acceptable levels. Runic Bulwark, which some have deemed to be the best defensive item in the game, is being taken down a notch. Supports are getting a fair bit of love here as well, with Locket of the Iron Solari being made cheaper and thus more easily accessible by our gold-starved comrades.

This patch provides tweaks to both sides of the equation, meaning neither defence nor offence gets an edge. I personally wish for a more serious look on resistances, armor in particular, as well as further attempts to push champions towards item variation and different builds, rather than bulkiness or damage they gain anyway through abilities or just stat growth.